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String Chaos For The Converted…

I have a few aquariums about the house, and one was a small one by my desk. Within this where all my baby fish and other small ones, very cute indeed, and added to that was rabbit snails, apple snails, cherry shrimp, wood shrimp and a large Cameroon shrimp. However, there was a problem, a big one.

I got up and turned on the day lights to this small tank. I have automatic lighting on the other tanks, but this was a little cheap one. For some reason the day before the water was too warm, so I turned down the thermostat, but this day I checked again and the water was too cold, so I reset the temperature to 28c, which is optimal. I went out and within two hours M called me to tell me that the water was literally boiling and lots fo the contents were dead. He worked fast to get the water temperature down by removing hot and adding cold but it was too late for most of the tanks inhabitants. 9 fish survived and the rabbit and apple snails survived along with the Cameroon shrimp, but all other life had expired. To say I was gutted really does not cover my feelings. I had spent hundreds of pounds on the livestock, and much more to get the tank looking good including bog wood with plants woven in the gaps. Unfortunately, when I put the live plants in pond snail eggs must have been on one and they multiplied at an astonishing rate.

So, the heater had failed, it was not that old, about 2 or 3 years old and was a good brand. As I had a few survivors I needed to get a new heater, but I was not fond of the tank as it was awkward to get into due to the lid, so I got out one of my other tanks, this one is a large cube on a plinth, and set that up, complete with new expensive heater, new plants, stones, ornamental sea rock and new livestock. As I have tanks that are already established I used the water from them to stock three-quarters of the tank and topped up with fresh along with the other tanks. Doing this meant that I did not have to cycle the tank for a few weeks to establish. I also added water from the tanks that held the livestock at the fish store, so all in all when I tested it, it was perfect. Thankfully.

In the new set up I have added guppies, mollys and platys. I did get a few wood shrimp and the old Cameroon shrimp are in there. I have seen some little frogs that I may get, but it is early days. and I do not want to go too fast with stocking it up. Also, one of the female mollys is pregnant. I will post a few photos when I added more. But, so far so good.